This domain pre-dates the whole brony thing.

I’ve taken the plunge into using Soylent for a large portion of my nutritional needs, albeit in the open-sourced DIY form. It’s been close to a month now of Soylent for at least 2 meals a day, and I have to say that I’m very content with it so far.

I love to eat food. I’m one of those individuals who can can not only stomach, but appreciate most anything edible. I attribute this to my dad who never allowed me to pass up a new food without trying it first. Even if my initial taste is a little off-putting, I can usually convince myself that it tastes okay after a couple of tries. I also have a big sweet tooth. I sometimes dream of cakes and doughnuts and cookies like an 8 year old. That said, convenience wins every time over a tasty meal. If it’s easier for me to throw something in the microwave for 3 minutes instead of slaving away in the kitchen on a real meal, I’m inclined to go the TV dinner route. This was my primary motivation for trying Soylent, and where it really shines.

As of this writing, the official Soylent product is not yet on the market and the recipe is still proprietary. However, a group of do-it-yourselfers have been hard at work creating their own takes on meal replacement formulas, and it’s here that I made the leap. The recipe I use was designed to use as few component ingredients as possible in order to lessen the shopping load. I think it currently hovers around 10 or 11 different products to buy, which is certainly manageable and turns out to be relatively inexpensive. It only takes me 5 to 10 minutes to prepare enough Soylent for a few days. The cleanup is just a few glasses, measuring cups and the occasional jug. I haven’t bothered to calculate how much time I actually save, but it already feels so much easier.

There are some downsides of course, the primary one being the taste. I don’t feel that the Soylent I use tastes bad (my girlfriend would highly disagree), but I admit that it’s not something you’d ever crave in that regard. My first impression was that it tasted a little oily, but that seems to be more a function of time. If you let it sit overnight, the oily taste decreases. As I mentioned earlier, I can stomach anything, so this was never a big concern for me. I personally find the social effects to be the biggest hurdle to overcome. We tend to use food as a tool for social time, whether at home or out with friends. Now that I eat fewer normal meals, I’ve had a few times where I’ve just sat with friends as they ate. It’s a little awkward.

I currently have no plans to stop Soylent consumption. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and while I can’t say this with 100% certainty, I’m guessing that it provides me with better nutrition than my typical meals would give me. I have a great deal of control over my calorie intake. These advantages simply outweigh the social ramifications and occasional cravings I get. Time will tell if I develop significant changes to my body, hopefully for the better. But unless something truly negative comes about, I think this might be a permanent lifestyle change.